The search for fast, precise, and robust testing techniques remains an important problem in automated full-field photoelasticity. The polarizer-sample-analyzer (PSA)-based three-wavelength polarimetric method presented here employs discrete Fourier analysis and a spectral content unwrapping algorithm to provide completely automatic, simple, fast, and accurate determination of both photoelastic parameters. Fourier analysis of experimental data and a three-wavelength approach reduce the effect of noise and efficiently cope with poor accuracy in regions of both isochromatic and isoclinic maps. Because any polarimetric technique yields the phase value in the principal range of the corresponding trigonometric function, the final step in data processing is phase unwrapping. Because of the good quality of the wrapped phase map and because each point is processed independently, our suggested three-wavelength unwrapping algorithm exhibits a high level of robustness. Unlike some other PSA three-wavelength techniques, the given algorithm here solves the problem of phase unwrapping completely. Specifically, it converts experimentally obtained arccosine-type phase maps directly into full phase value distributions, skipping the step of generating an arctangent-type ramped phase map and resorting to other unwrapping routines for final data processing. The accuracy of the new technique has been estimated with a Babinet-Soleil compensator. Test experiments with the disk in diametric compression and a quartz plate have proved that the technique can be used for precise determination of the isoclinic angle and relative retardation, even for large values of the latter.
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